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The importance of inter-regional cooperation was something that Gergely Prőhle, representing the Ministry of Human Capacities, emphasised on the 25th anniversary of the dismantling of the Iron Curtain. Austria's president, Heinz Fischer, and Franz Vranitzky, former Chancellor of Austria, also attended the commemoration.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary the Roma Holocaust and the 5th anniversary of the murder of a Hungarian Roma woman in Kisléta, an ecumenical church service was held in Budapest on 4 August, organised by the Sant’Egidio Community. Acting in his role as Reformed Church pastor, the event was also attended by Minister of Human Resources Zoltán Balog.

Model programmes such as those operating in the South Heves sub-region are proof that the Government’s social inclusion policy is correct, because it achieves results, stated Minister of State for Social Affairs and Inclusion Károly Czibere from the Ministry of Human Resources declared in Heves on Wednesday.

Beginning this week, four new psychoactive substances are being included the so-called C list as designer drugs; consequently, the police may initiate the respective proceedings following their confiscation.

Apart from day-to-day medication, the spiritual factor, which was repressed for decades in Hungary, is also important and more and more people have realised to what extent the power of faith and religion or the work of non-governmental organisations can help healing, Minister of State for Social and Family Affairs Miklós Soltész from the Ministry of Human Resources said in Zalaszabar on Monday.

The Government’s objective is to ensure that as many endangered children as possible are placed with foster families, Minister of State for Social Affairs and Inclusion Károly Czibere, from the Ministry of Human Resources, told Hungarian news agency MTI on Tuesday in Szeged.

Church-maintained schools were a secondary issue during previous, Socialist governments, Minister of State for Social and Family Affairs Miklós Soltész pointed out at a press conference held in Carei (Nagykároly, Transylvania) on Tuesday. The politician added that during the past four years the Orbán government has also implemented serious changes within this field. While in 2010 there were roughly six hundred church-maintained educational institutions in Hungary, their number reached one thousand by 2014.

A new programme to help those most in need is being launched with the support of the European Union. Families with children under the age of three, the homeless and senior citizens with low pensions will be provided with food packages and free advice to help them escape poverty.